Bottled 38 quarts today. Very nice syrup. Its wrong to be excited that our new fill tube on the bottling pan worked well? No more leaks from the tube when filing bottles. And almost eliminated bubbles in syrup because no air was getting in through the cracks in the fill tube.
About 10 overnight. Mid-20s and sunny. There was melting where the sun shown. The March sun is warm even if the temperature is not.
‘Tonight around 10 again. 1-3 inches of snow for Monday evening.
About 28 overnight. Only about 32 for the high today. But the sun did appear this afternoon. Its warmth caused melting. But nothing from the trees. Although internally the sap is likely moving.
Two group of visitors today. And another maple producer stopped over to chat.
Emptied the storage tank. Four more batches of syrup in the milk can. Tomorrow we plan to bottle.
Our weather turns colder again. Down to 8 overnight. Tomorrow only mid-20s.
Collected 185 gallons of sap today. Can’t quite break that 225 gallon marker of a full tank. About 28 overnight. Up to 40 during the day. That’s the weather we needed. Started sunny. The trees were dripping by 10:30-11:00. Clouds moved in this afternoon but once started the trees continued dripping. Still, its a small run. We should be collecting two or three tanks by this time of the season.
Tomorrow we will boil. Visitors are coming: two groups of Girl Scouts.
Cold weather returns for a few days now too.
We made syrup today. About 5 gallons in the milk can awaiting finishing and bottling. Today is the first day of Spring. The forecast called for sunny and 40. It was about 28 overnight. We had clouds until 4:00 PM. Reached 40 around 1:00 PM. With no sun and cold this morning sap did not start dripping until late in the day. Maybe tomorrow? We do plan to collect what is there tomorrow as it turns colder over the weekend.
Collected 165 gallons of sap today. 3.0 Brix. The run started yesterday around Noon when it warmed. It did not freeze last night. Around 32 for the low so the trees dripped overnight. But it was a small run. The wintery mix never moved in. No rain, sleet, or snow. Tonight down to mid 20s. Tomorrow sunny and high 30s. Hoping for a bigger run.
We will cook tomorrow. And should have a batch of syrup ready by tomorrow evening.
Fox 11 WLUK TV from Green Bay, WI stopped by today to do a story on the late start to the maple syrup season. They interviewed us and another producer at In The Woods Sugarbush. Here is a link to the story.
http://fox11online.com/2014/03/18/maple-syrup-season-delayed-in-northeast-wisconsin/
Around Noon it warmed above freezing. Got to up 40. It was cloudy. The trees started to drip a little. It will be above freezing into late night. The trees may drip overnight. But by 3:00 AM or so rain moves in. And by later tomorrow it turns to snow. So we get a wintery mix of rain and snow. Thursday and Friday are looking promising. But next week its forecast to stay below freezing.
Connected the propane gas in the kitchen.
Another day waiting. About 7 overnight. Up to 30 during the day. Cold wind. It warms tomorrow but with that comes rain or sleet. Slow start to this season.
Cold over night. Down to single digits. Only about 16 for the high today. Woke to lake effect snow. Did not accumulate, but it did cover the ice to make that more slippery. Now we wait for the weather to change.
Started the fire at 2:35 PM. Had boil by 3:05 PM. The tank had 10” of sap. Stayed until 8:00 PM boiling to empty the tank. The weather forecast for the next three or four days is not favorable to sap runs. Tomorrow’s high it 20. Yesterday’s decision to collect was correct. Otherwise we would have ice in the buckets.
Up to 30 today. About 25 overnight. Sunny. Cloudy. Snow flurries. North wind, A little melt when the sun was out, but overall too cold. About 25 overnight.
Washed the tanks and setup the pipes to the evaporator this morning.
While boiling we noticed a lot of sugar sand already. May be a season of sugar sand. Last season there was little sugar sand.
Small run today. Collected 125 gallons of sap. Started at 5:30 PM. Finished at 9:05 PM. The only reason we collected is that the sap was liquid today. Tomorrow and the next few days turn colder again and then we would have ice in the buckets. Its a lot of work to collect solo and then starting late meant we would collect in the dark. We waited until after 5:00 to start in order to get most of the run. It was cloudy until about 1:00 PM. Then the sun appeared and trees started dripping. By 4:00 PM the clouds moved in again. But it did get to 45 and there was melting this afternoon.
By 7:30 PM it was dark enough to turn on the headlamps we have. Its nice to have the lamp right on your head so you can direct to where you need to see the spout. The moon was bright for about 45 minutes too. Then it got cloudy.
Tomorrow we will see about starting the evaporator.
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